COMMUNITY groups are today urged to get scrubbing.
The Examiner has teamed up with Kirklees Council to get tough on the yobs who daub their names on buildings, walls, phone boxes and even buses.
Council officials are handing out scrubbing kits to community groups who want to help by removing ugly scrawls. Already groups across Kirklees have taken up the offer.
John Gledhill, Kirklees project officer for the anti-graffiti campaign, said they were aiming of a better-looking town.
"Having walls and passages covered in graffiti has a massive impact on the lives of people," he said.
"It is intimidating, especially for elderly people. It gives an area a rundown look. That is why we have to beat it.
"We have a team of rangers who are employed to tackle the problem. They aim to remove the worst types of graffiti within 48 hours.
"Then we have to deal with the taggers. We aim to get rid of what they do in a week."
In the past year two teenagers have been charged with criminal damage after they were caught tagging. Magistrates decided their crimes were serious enough to deserve community service.
And Mr Gledhill said magistrates were getting tougher.
"We want to get these criminals in court and send out a message that they will be punished," he added.
Clr Ann Denham, Kirklees Cabinet member for highways, said giving community groups the chance to take clean-up operations in to their own hands would help.
"The people who live in areas blighted by graffiti want to do something about it and now they can," she said.
"I encourage as many groups as possible to get hold of the kits to look after their building and show the vandals they will not be beaten."
* To get your kit, phone Becky McNeil at Kirklees Council on 01484 416828.
NOW is the time to rid our town of graffiti.
The Examiner is supporting Kirklees Council's clampdown on the yobs who turn towns and villages into eyesores by scrawling names and obscenities on buildings and walls - and we need your help.
Community groups can now pick up scrubbing kits from the council to start a fightback in the battle against the taggers who daub their names across town.
In street slang, `tags' are a scrawler's nickname or signature.
The kits, worth £15, include graffiti-removal spray, water spray, gloves, a scrubbing brush, goggles and cloths.
The message is clear; you can make a difference.
Council leader Kath Pinnock said people should get behind the push to clean up Huddersfield.
"It is brilliant that the Examiner is getting behind the Scrub It campaign," she said. "Hopefully, a lot of community groups will take up the offer of a free kit and we will start to see improvements.
"The Kirklees Graffiti Rangers already do a great job cleaning up. It really does make a difference," she added.
"If we had no graffiti the town would be so much more attractive, not only to visitors but to the people who live here as well."
Kirklees Environment spokesman Niel Stewart said that although the council did employ two rangers to deal with graffiti it could not all be removed immediately.
"We have a response time of 48 hours for offensive graffiti. For example, that which is sexist or racist," he said.
"For tags, where a person writes their name or an acquired name, we aim to get them removed within a week.
"But for larger pieces it could take up to eight weeks to get the graffiti removed."
